The Lady Vols travel to Illinois this weekend for the State Farm Illini Classic. They will face Creighton on Friday at 5:30pm ET. Depending on the outcome (and assuming I’m reading the schedule correctly!), on Saturday they will face either Marquette at 1pm ET or Illinois at 4pm ET.
Want to keep up with the games? Here are the current options that may be available. As game time approaches other options may become confirmed.
• Tennessee vs. Creighton: UT live stats | Creighton live stats | CSTV Gametracker | Creighton live audio
• Illinois vs. Marquette: Illinois live video ($) | CSTV Gametracker
• Marquette vs Tennessee or Creighton: UT live stats | Creighton live stats | CSTV Gametracker | Creighton live audio
• Illinois vs Tennessee or Creighton: UT live stats | Creighton live stats | CSTV Gametracker | Creighton live audio
Here are the websites and records of the other teams in the tournament
• Illinois (5-2)
• Creighton (3-3)
• Marquette (2-3)UPDATE: Video of all the tournament games will be available, but only via Illini CSTV All-Access plan – a monthly subscription for $6.95. I don’t know the details but hopefully you could unsubscribe after the weekend and only have to pay for the one month.
Thanks to those of you who have written to me about my camera woes! Two of you suggested the Nikon D50 with a 50mm lens was what I needed to get the job done. One fan even sent in some great pictures from the Lady Vol Classic taken with that camera. Luckily I am just 22 days into the 30 day return policy for my current camera and after a little more research on the Nikon I was sold. I packed up my old new camera, and pulled out the receipt. I double checked the return policy written in small print on the reverse side. “Returns accepted within 30 days with the following exceptions…” – and of course, digital cameras were one of those exceptions! The return policy on those was 14 days. So I am stuck with the Kodak. It is a wonderful camera, other than low light/fast movement environments, and my wife loves it so I’m not too upset! The thing has so many adjustment options that I’m not giving up on it yet, but my goal now is just to get good web quality pictures, rather than print quality.
Thanks again to those who offered help. And thanks to the fan that sent in these great shots from the recent tournament. Feel free to email any pictures you want to share with fellow fans and I’ll post them as well!
For those who don’t care about my camera issues, real news and updates are coming later today!
The week two CSTV/AVCA Coaches Poll was was released today. After gaining 15 spots in the last poll the the Lady Vols lost some ground this week, losing almost half their votes and dropping from an unofficial #29 to #31.
Other SEC teams on the list include: #6 Florida (+1), #21 LSU (+1), #33 Arkansas (NR), #37 Kentucky (NR), and #40 Mississippi (NR). Other ranked teams on Tennessee’s remaining schedule are: #38 Louisville (-12) and #40 Notre Dame (-4).
In other rankings news, the Pablo Rankings (WARNING – site may crash your browser) has released an early unofficial list which has Tennessee at #30.
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Tennessee had a very successful weekend hosting the Comcast Lady Vol Classic. They swept all three teams they played (Appalachian State, Belmont, and Indiana) and won the championship for the fourth straight time. Leah Hinkey was named tournament MVP. Chloe Goldman and Milan Clarke made the all-tournament team. Kylie Marshall came within two aces of tying Lady Vol Hall of Famer Beverly Robinson’s 25 year old school record, and the team came within five aces of tying the team match record. And an amazing 11 players on the Lady Vols roster matched or exceeded career highs!
• Tennessee is 8-1 vs Appalachian State
• Tennessee is 1-0 vs Belmont
• Tennessee is 4-2 vs Indiana
• This weekend was the first time since November 2005 that Tennessee has won three games in a row by a score of 3-0.Career bests matched or exceeded this weekend:
• Jena Berg: kills, attacks, hitting percentage, assists, and blocks
• Carol Cheade: aces
• Milan Clarke: blocks
• Mindy Flynn: hitting percentage
• Nikki Fowler: hitting percentage, digs, and blocks
• Chloe Goldman: kills and attacks
• Leah Hinkey: kills, hitting percentage, and aces
• Lauren LaFlamme: assists
• Jaye Loyd: aces
• Kylie Marshall: aces
• Farren Powe: assists, digs, and blocks
I changed some settings and tried some new things but the pictures I took on the second day of the Lady Vol Classic turned out even worse than the first day! So I’ve got some work to do to figure out this camera! Tennessee posts some good pictures from the games – with a much better (and more expensive!) camera than mine. But they’re so small that they’re just good enough for web viewing. I was hoping to be able to post some high quality pictures that would actually be good enough for saving or printing. But I have a ways to go before I can get to that point! Apologies for the quality, and I will try to do better!
The Lady Vols defeated Indiana 3-0 in the final match of the Lady Vol Classic, and were named touney champions. MVP Leah Hinkey, Milan Clarke and Chloe Goldman made the all-tournament team. I’ll have details, links, and some pics up soon.
UPDATE: Tennessee has the box and the story.
In a tightly fought game, Tennessee beat Belmont this morning 3-0 (30-28, 32-30, 30-23). More info soon…
UPDATES: Box score now online
Tennessee has the story.
With three players hitting over .500 and four players combining for 16 aces, Tennessee took down Appalachian State 3-0 (30-17, 30-18, 30-14). Leah Hinkey, who hit only 8 aces in all of 2006, downed 5 serves in one match easily setting a career mark. Kylie Marshall also had a career night with 9 aces – just 2 off Lady Vol Hall of Famer Beverly Robinson’s 25 year old school record. On top of the aces, Marshall contributed to the win with a .556 hitting average (5-0-9), joining Milan Clarke (.529, 11-2-17) and Mindy Flynn (.667, 6-0-9) above .500 for the night.
UPDATES: Tennessee has added the “official” story of the game to their site!
Coach Patrick: Kylie has a tremendous jump serve and she was able to show it off tonight. She was very successful in taking Appalachian State out of its offense and gave us some easy points.
I’ve posted some photos from the game. (Check this post and the forum to help me get better pics!)
Assistant coach Noble, head coach Patrick, and assistant coach Minnis watch on as Jacksonville State defeats Appalachian State 3-2.
I just got a new camera, so I went to the first game of the tournament to figure out how to use it! To be honest I wasn’t too happy with my results. If any one wants to offer any help or suggestions on how to take better pictures from inside Stokely Athletics Center please let me know in the forums!
If you can’t make the Lady Vol Classic – which starts today – you can at least follow the matches with Tennessee’s live stats page!
Tennessee opens their home schedule tonight at the Comcast Lady Vol Classic. Three of the five teams taking part have posted match notes on their websites. The notes include rosters, team information, statistics, and other interesting tidbits. All are in PDF format – click to view or right click to download.
• Tennessee
• Belmont
• IndianaUPDATE: Go Vols Xtra and Inside Tennessee summarize some of the UT match notes.
Subscribers to Big Orange E-mail received a coupon in their inbox today offering a buy-one-get-one-free deal for Tennessee volleyball tickets this weekend. If you’re a subscriber be sure to watch for it. If not, the official Lady Vols site has a link where you can subscribe. Benefits include gameday information, exclusive ticket offers, contests, and more. Or contact me (link to the left) and I can forward a copy to you.
Also, don’t forget that season tickets for the entire home schedule are available. Volleyball season tickets are $50. Fans of Lady Vol softball and soccer can get the Big Orange Pass, season tickets for all three sports for just $125. You can order online but you might want to call or drop by the ticket office since the home season starts in just 2 days.
The Comcast Lady Vol Classic takes place this weekend at Stokley Athletic Center. The first match of the 8 game tournament begins at 10am on Friday. Below is the list of participants, their volleyball websites, win-loss records, and when they play Tennessee. Check the schedule for the full list of game times.
• Appalachian State (1-2), vs UT Friday @ 7pm
• Belmont (2-1), vs UT Saturday @ 10am
• Indiana (2-1), vs UT Saturday @ 7pm
• Jacksonville State (1-2)
Tennessee’s home opener is against Appalachian State this Friday night at 7pm. Any way we can get the PA people to play this? ;)
UPDATE: A bad song is a bad song no matter where it comes from. Thankfully I have never heard this UT song (sung to the tune of “Life is a Highway”) but it comes close to the “Hot, Hot, Hot” badness! Add in some fans singing along to it and the embarrassment is complete! How about we all agree to put both these songs behind us this weekend and just enjoy the game!
Milan Clarke was named Lady Vol Athlete of the Week and Leah Hinkey was named SEC Defensive Player of the Week after their accomplishments against Nebraska and Utah at the AVCA Showcase. Clarke set or tied career best records for kills and blocks and was named to the All-Tournament Team. Hinkey set or tied career best records for assists, digs, and blocks. Her 13 blocks against Utah was 4th all-time in a single match for Tennessee.
Coach Patrick: The performances of these two players really helped to jumpstart our season. Now we just need to continue getting better each and every day in order to be as successful as we would like to be this year. — UTLadyVols.com